Tuesday, December 24, 2013

2013 Fantasy Football MVPs and Busts

These MVP awards are not like the awards that are given out by the NFL. To win a fantasy football MVP the player must be consistent during a majority of the season, and comes up big during the fantasy football playoff.

MVPs

He's your clear MVP in fantasy and he's going to win the MVP in the NFL this season. He set the record for most passing touchdowns in the NFL, breaking Tom Brady's record of 50 back in 2007. Plus in 2 of the 3 fantasy playoff weeks, he threw for 397 yards and 4 TDs and then 400 yards and 4 TDs. No picks in those two games.

Hard to think somebody can be an MVP when he most likely wasn't drafted in 95% of fantasy leagues this year. However once he took over for Mike Vick in that Eagles offense, he was single handedly winning you fantasy matchups week in and week out.

Despite being suspended for the first two games of the season, Gordon still finished with the most receiving yards in the NFL, going over the 1,500 yard mark on 80 catches and scored 9 times. In his 13 games played, he had 3 games with 10 or more catches, went over 100 yards in 7 games including 3 straight with 237, 261 and 151 yards. He was the most dominant fantasy player from weeks 11-15 with 45 catches, 841 yards and 6 touchdowns.

If it were not for Peyton Manning, then Charles would be the NFL's MVP. This guy was the Chiefs offense. 19 total touchdowns, 1,200 rushing yards, 70 catches for nearly 700 yards, touchdowns in 12 of 16 games. Oh yeah and he single handedly put you into the championship with his 5 TD performance in week 15.

Hard not to be considered an MVP at the running back position when you lead the NFL in rushing by nearly 200 yards. McCoy rushed for 1476 yards and added 536 yards on 51 receptions. He scored a total of 10 touchdowns, 4 of them coming in the playoff weeks. He had 217 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns in that snowy game against the Lions and then in week 16 had 133 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns against the awful Bears defense.

He's on a whole 'nother level than the rest of the tight ends in the NFL. Only tight end with 1,000 yards. He had 81 catches and 15 touchdowns. That's insane coming from a tight end. Scored in 10 of the 16 weeks, including 5 games with 2 touchdowns.

He rarely racked up big yardage in games, as most tight ends don't but he was as consistent as they come when it came to scoring touchdowns in the red zone. Thomas scored in 10 different games, including a touchdown in week 14 and 16.

Heading into the season the Panthers figured to have a tough schedule as the Saints and Falcons are always high scoring offenses and then the Buccaneers were expected to be explosive as well with Doug Martin, Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams. The Panthers were one of the most surprising defenses all season long. They were 2nd in the NFL holding opponents to just 87 rushing yards a game and 7th against the pass. Their 51 sacks were only behind the Buffalo Bills, they allowed the second fewest points, forced 29 turnovers and had 3 touchdowns.

DEF - Kansas City Chiefs

Who would have thought the Kansas City Chiefs would help you reach your fantasy football championship? If you had them in the playoffs than it's nearly impossible for you to have not reached the ship, as they put up a combined 45 points the first two weeks of the playoffs. They got it done all season long, allowing the 6th fewest points, were 6th in sacks with 44, had 35 take aways, 7 defensive touchdowns, 4 return touchdowns and finished with the most points for any defense/special teams in fantasy.

Busts

It's simple, These players underachieved all season long, producing little or absolutely nothing for fantasy teams all year, making you question your draft strategy. Players who were injured will be left off of this list.

With the offensive weapons Eli has in the passing game, we all expected big numbers out of him this year. Coming into the season Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks were stars at the wide receiver position and Rueben Randle is a second year wide out with tons of upside. Nobody expected Eli to throw a career low 17 touchdowns and a career high 26 interceptions and 7 fumbles. He threw for 300 yards just once after week 2 and only threw for more than 1 TD in any game just three times all year. Not to mention he only had 3 games without throwing a pick. Just absolutely dreadful this year and a QB who you could not trust at any point this season.

If you were relying on Colin Kaepernick to win you a fantasy football championship than you probably didn't win. 4 different games this year Kaepernick failed to throw a touchdown, and nine games he failed to throw for 200 yards. He also didn't get it done with his legs which most owners were banking on. 9 games he rushed for 25 yards or less and only had rushing touchdowns in 2 games. With receivers like Anquan Boldin and Vernon Davis, you expected big games each week from Kaepernick.

Anytime you play for a pass heavy offense and you are in a walk year (free agent to be) you have to expect a monster season, especially from a 25 year old with great hands like Nicks. However the entire Giants team disappointed, and Nicks might have let fantasy owners down the most. The guy played in 14 games and FAILED TO SCORE A SINGLE TOUCHDOWN. How is that even possible? Only had 100 yards 3 times, only had 5 or more catches in 4 games. Nicks looked like a man playing scared, and not only did it cost you, but it's going to cost him some money this off season.

The speedster changing NFC North teams and becoming the main go to guy in the passing game, did not get much done in his first season as a Viking. You had to figure teams would stack the box against Adrian Peterson which means easy single coverage for Jennings to burn, however Jennings only hit the 100 yard mark once this year and scored in only 3 games. He failed to top 50 yards in 8 games. Not sure if this was just a case of the Vikings not having a reliable QB or Jennings now being 30 years old.

Yes this is the same Ray Rice who has rushed for over 1,100 yards the past four seasons and averaged over 8 yards per catch in that time. Being drafted in the first round in nearly all drafts, Ray Rice was a huge bust in 2013. Averaging just 3.1 yards per rush, Rice ran for just 645 yards and only added 286 yards on 51 catches. 10 games this yearRice failed to reach the 50 yard mark, and only scored a touchdown in 3 games. He had one 100 yard game against the Bears who everyone ran for 100+ yards against, and he did not even hit 75 rushing yards in his other 13 games.

Another guy who most owners probably wasted a first round pick on was Trent Richardson. After an 12 touchdown rookie season in which he rushed for 950 yards and added 51 catches, a lot of people were riding high on T-Rich. He lasted two games with the Browns (Cleveland scored a total of 16 points in those 2 games) before being traded to the Colts. Fantasy owners were ecstatic that he would be playing in a high scoring offense where he wouldn't be the only player defenses focused on. Richardson scored on his first carry as a Colt and then scored again in his second game. However things went sour from there. Richardson ended up losing his starting job to backup Donald Brown, failed to rush for a TD in his final 11 games (scored 1 receiving TD) and was held under 50 yards in 9 of those games.

After a 79 reception season with the Raiders last year, Myers was signed by the Giants, a pass heavy offense in which quarterback Eli Manning relies heavily on his tight end. However with a struggling offensive line, Myers was used as a blocker for a good portion of the season. He finished with 45 catches, 513 yards and 4 TDs. He was held up 50 yards in 10 games, including being shutout in 2 weeks.

When you think of fantasy football dominant defenses you automatically think of the Bears. However this year they were absolutely awful. They had the least amount of sacks in the NFL with 28, and gave up 401 points which was 4th worst in the league.

DEF - Houston Texans

A lot of people had high hopes for the Texans this year and they disappointed big time. They only forced 10 turnovers and finished with the least amount of fantasy points from a defense.